Upholstery edge roll

ABSTRACT

An edge roll formed of an elongated core made of soft paper folded and compressed into a generally cylindrical crosssectional shape, and a wrapper formed of a narrow ribbon of greater width than the circumference of the core, and made of a thin, non-woven, hairy, synthetic plastic yarn fabric, with the wrapper closely surrounding the core and having its opposite long edge portions bent into face to face contact and extending radially to the core, with a line of stitches arranged parallel to and closely adjacent to the core, securing said edge portions together to form an attaching flange.

United States Patent Ambrose 1 May 30, 1972 54 UPHOLSTERY EDGE ROLL2,724,431 11 1955 Boersma ..112 422 2,810,645 10/1957 Houghton..... [721Invent 3,459,631 8/1969 Hamilton etal.. ..161/170 [73] Assignee:Northern Fibre Products Company, Birmingham, Mich. PrimaryExaminer-Alfred R. Guest Attorney-Cullen, Settle, Sloman & Cantor 221Filed: Aug. 14,1970

Appl. No.: 63,756

[ ABSTRACT An edge roll formed of an elongated core made of soft paperfolded and compressed into a generally cylindrical cross-sectionalshape, and a wrapper formed of a narrow ribbon of greater width than thecircumference of the core, and made of a thin, non-woven, hairy,synthetic plastic yarn fabric, with the wrapper closely surrounding thecore and having its opposite long edge portions bent into face to facecontact and extending radially to the core, with a line of stitchesarranged parallel to and closely adjacent to the core, securing saidedge portions together to form an attaching flange.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing figures Patented May 30, 1972 FIG. I

INVENTOR' JERE B. AMBROSE 91%, yv e ATTORNEYS UPI-IOLSTERY EDGE ROLLBACKGROUND OF INVENTION The invention herein relates to an improvementin upholstery edge rolls or welt strips of the type shown, for example,in U.S. Pat. No. 2,724,431 granted to Boersma on Nov. 22, 1955. In thistype of edge roll, a cylindrically shaped core is formed of folded andcompressed soft paper which is then surrounded by a fabric wrapper.

The core may be formed in the manner described in my prior U.S. Pat. No.3,482,483 granted Dec. 9, 1969.

Conventionally, the core is surrounded by a burlap or jute woven fabricwhich surrounds the core and by means of stitching provides a radiallyextending continuous attachment flange. In use, the upholsterersurrounds the roll with upholstery fabric and utilizes the attachmentflange for stitching the upholstery fabric to the roll and vice versa.

The conventionally used burlap or jute type of fabric has been adoptedprimarily because it is inexpensive as well as of sufficient strength tomaintain the roll in its correct cross-sectional form. However, thistype of fabric has a number of severe disadvantages, such as its bulk,the requirement that its edges be hemmed due to reveling of the edges,it sometimes tends to have an odor and/or contain residual oils or thelike which can stain the surrounding upholstery fabrics and it tends tostretch out of shape when applied to the core as well as when the rollis flexed during assembly of an upholstered piece of furniture.

In using an edge roll to make up an upholstered piece, a considerableamount of friction is required between the roll surface and theupholstery cloth in order to properly hold the upholstery cloth in placeand prevent wrinkling, etc. Thus, at-, tempts to find better wrappermaterials which eliminate some of the above problems, have generallybeen unsuccessful. Particularly, the substitution of inexpensive plasticcloths which are similar to burlap or jute woven cloths in appearancehas not been satisfactory since such cloths have generally been smoothor of low friction, thus not meeting one of the necessary specificationsof this type of roll.

Hence, the invention herein relates to an improvement in the rollwrapper which permits the use of inexpensive, synthetic plasticmaterials which eliminate the foregoing difficulties while at the sametime meeting the necessary requirement for the end production.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The invention herein relates to improving edgerolls made of soft paper cores by forming the wrapper out of a thin,nonwoven, synthetic plastic yarn fabric such as polypropelene, with thefabric being characterized by having its exposed surface being looselymatted to form a hairy-like finish, with the fabric being otherwisestretch resistant and ravel-free so that its free edges may be leftunbound and unhemmed resulting in a less bulky attachment flange towhich the upholstery fabric may be secured.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will becomeapparent upon reading the following description, of which the attacheddrawings form a part.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a short lengthof the edge roll herein.

FIG. 2 is an elevational view, with the wrapper partly cut away, of asection of the edge roll.

FIG. 3 is an end view of the edge roll, but with the core shown incross-sectional lines for simplicity of illustration.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing the conventional or priorart edge roll, and,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the prior art type edge roll.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to FIGS. l-3, the improved edge roll 10comprises a core 11 and a wrapper 12. The core is preferably formed ofsoft paper which is folded and compressed into an elongated, generallycylindrical shaped rod 13. This is surrounded by an open mesh braid l4and may be of the type described in my above mentioned U.S. Pat. No.3,482,483.

The wrapper 12 is formed of an elongated ribbon made of a randomoriented, non-woven fabric formed of short lengths of synthetic plasticmonofilament or yarn, such as of polypropelene, the yarn lengths beingsecured together by a suitable binder. Appropriate binders for thispurpose are conventional and known to those skilled in the art.

The fabric has at least its outer or exposed surface loosely matted sothat many free edges of the yarn extend therefrom to form loose hairs 15which give the surface a hairy-like finish. The surface is quite similarto the type of surface on a cashmere type material.

The ribbon is of sufiicient width to circumferentially surround the coreand at the same time have its opposite, long edges form edge flangeportions 16 arranged in face to face contact and secured together by aline of stitches 17 arranged parallel to the core and close to the coresurface. Otherwise, the flange portions are free of securement to eachother. Thus, the edge flange portions together form a double plyattachment flange 18 to which upholstery fabric may be stitched.

Alternatively, the flange portions 16 may be secured together with asuitable adhesive, as for example applied in a line similar to thelocation of the stitch line 17.

PRIOR ART EDGE ROLLS By way of better explaining the differences betweenthe improved edge roll herein and the prior art, FIGS. 4 and 5illustrate a conventional or prior art edge roll 20 wherein the core 11is surrounded by a woven burlap wrapper 21 whose free edges are doublebent or hemmed into edge flange portions 22. These are stitched togetherby an upper stitch line 23, closely adjacent to the core, and a lowerstitch line 24 which is necessary because of the bulk or four plythickness which forms the attachment flange 25. The double bent edgeflange portions are necessary because of the tendency of the looselywoven burlap material to unravel at the edges. This results in the needfor extra material to make up the hemming which both increases the costof the product as well as making it more difiicult to secure upholsteryfabrics to the attachment flange due to its four ply thickness.

In contrast, the two ply attachment flange 18 of my improved edge rollis quite thin, not bulky, and is easy to stitch to upholstery fabric. Inaddition, the hairy finish surface of my improved edge roll provides thenecessary friction and slip resistance to prevent unwanted shifting orwrinkling of the upholstery fabric, and to interlock with the yarn ofthe upholstery fabric.

I-Iaving fully described an operative embodiment of this invention, Inow claim:

1. An upholstery edge roll comprising an elongated core formed of softpaper folded and compressed into a generally cylindrically shapedcross-section, and a wrapper formed of a narrow, elongated ribbon,completely surrounding the core along its full length, with the oppositelong edges of the ribbon forming narrow, continuous flange portions bentradially of the core and arranged in substantially face to face contactto form a double thickness attaching flange, and with a line ofstitching, arranged parallel to and closely adjacent to the core,securing said flange portions together and securing the wrapper aroundthe core;

said ribbon being formed of a thin, uniform thickness sheet of non-wovenfabric made of short lengths of randomly oriented fine stretchedpolypropylene yarn, with said fabric being of a non-raveling nature andbeing stretch resistant, but flexible;

and with the face of the fabric which is exposed when the ribbon iswrapped around the core being loosely matted to provide free loose endsof yarn forming a flexible, hairy-like finished surface thereon, withfine hairs extending a distance outwardly of said surface forfrictionally 5 and mechanically interlocking with the surface of anupholstery fabric wrapped around the roll.

1. An upholstery edge roll comprising an elongated core formed of softpaper folded and compressed into a generally cylindrically shapedcross-section, and a wrapper fOrmed of a narrow, elongated ribbon,completely surrounding the core along its full length, with the oppositelong edges of the ribbon forming narrow, continuous flange portions bentradially of the core and arranged in substantially face to face contactto form a double thickness attaching flange, and with a line ofstitching, arranged parallel to and closely adjacent to the core,securing said flange portions together and securing the wrapper aroundthe core; said ribbon being formed of a thin, uniform thickness sheet ofnon-woven fabric made of short lengths of randomly oriented finestretched polypropylene yarn, with said fabric being of a non-ravelingnature and being stretch resistant, but flexible; and with the face ofthe fabric which is exposed when the ribbon is wrapped around the corebeing loosely matted to provide free loose ends of yarn forming aflexible, hairy-like finished surface thereon, with fine hairs extendinga distance outwardly of said surface for frictionally and mechanicallyinterlocking with the surface of an upholstery fabric wrapped around theroll.